History of the graphical user interface
Wikimedia history article
The history of the graphical user interface, understood as the use of graphic icons and a pointing device to control a computer, covers a five-decade span of incremental refinements, built on some constant core principles. Several vendors have created their own windowing systems based on independent code, but with basic elements in common that define the WIMP "window, icon, menu and pointing device" paradigm.
There have been important technological achievements, and enhancements to the general interaction in small steps over prior systems. There have been a few significant breakthroughs in use, but the same organizational interface metaphors and interaction idioms are still in use. Desktop computers are often controlled by computer mice and/or keyboards while laptops often have a pointing stick or touchpad, and smartphones and tablet computers have a touchscreen. The influence of game computers and joystick operation has been omitted.
Early research and developments
Early dynamic information devices such as radar displays, where input devices were used for direct control of computer-created data, set the basis for later improvements of graphical interfaces. Some early cathode ray tube (CRT) screens used a light pen, rather than a mouse, as the pointing device.
The concept of a multi-panel windowing system was introduced by the first real-time graphic display systems for computers: the SAGE Project and Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad.
Augmentation of Human Intellect (NLS)
In the 1960s, Douglas Engelbart's Augmentation of Human Intellect project at the Augmentation Research Center at SRI International in Menlo Park, California developed the oN-Line System (NLS).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “History of the graphical user interface” is wikimedia history article. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through History, graphical and user, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “History of the graphical user interface” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.